10 Old School Mac Games We Miss

10 Old School Mac Games We Miss

Posted 08/17/2011 at 2:17pm | by Chris Barylick

Yes, there are times when you sound geezer-esque when you reference how good something used to be. Which isn't to say there isn't a point to be had.

In the face of video games having become multi-million dollar production efforts on the level of A-list movies, it's sometimes best to think back to the games we grew up with and loved (even if the local kids call you "Grandpa" and keep offering you glasses of prune juice in the process…). That being said, here's a gallery of 10 old school Mac games we really miss.

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10 Old Mac Games We Miss

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Myth II: Soulblighter
The biggest, baddest and cleverest real-time strategy game of 1998 and proof that Bungie loved the Mac before Microsoft and the Xbox came along. The strategic elements were amazing, it was easy to hop online and a cutting edge physics engine proved that your most powerful units could be blown into red gelatin if you took your eyes off the ball for even a second...
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Where In the World is Carmen Sandiego?
It was hard to specify exactly what was learned, even though this was part of various educational curriculums in the 80s and 90s. Still, this was a fun way to kill time, learn about geography and hunt down V.I.L.E. henchmen, gathering clues, getting the warrant and working your way towards Carmen...
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Oregon Trail
If it was hard to say what students learned out of playing "Where In the World is Carmen Sandiego", then it was that much harder to argue the educational value of "Oregon Trail", especially when the whole class spent half the time hunting. Even so, it was simple, and taught you how to make the most of what was available, how to trade for something better and other strategic elements, like how to not hit multiple rocks on the river run at the end of the game...
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A-10 Cuba!
THE flight simulator of its day and the mucho-cool sequel to A-10 Attack!, A-10 Cuba made you crave a Mac with a 68040 or PowerPC processor that could handle the then-cutting-edge number of polygons, smoke effects and weapon damage effects. This was a step forward for how realistic a flight simulator could be and if you had enough machine to run it and a good flight stick to go along with it, then there was no choice but to go and blow everything else out of the sky.
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Descent
Yes, it inspired vertigo to a degree you never thought possible in a video game. Yes, you pretty much had no idea which way was up while robots tried to kill you. Descent showed you what six degrees of movement and a complete suspension of the idea of gravity could do. Add this to the fact that once you'd collected all the keys to a level, rescued various workers and blown apart its reactor core and defeated assorted robots, you had one of the coolest games of its era bar none.
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Bolo
It was both weird and strange. It was also pretty freaking brilliant. A sort of early network strategy/tank game, Bolo had you in a small tank harvesting trees, building land, creating forts, building traps and forming alliances with opponents as a means of taking them down. Yes, it was a bit tricky to set up on the hosting/network end, but if you could get a few friends to fall into the perfect trap, their screams of frustration made it all the more worthwhile...
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King's Quest III: To Heir is Human
You had to love the 80s and you had to love the "King's Quest" series. One of the best of the series, King's Quest III placed you in the position of Gwydion, a young slave looking to escape from the control of a wizard master and find his true destiny. Factor this in with magic spells, an evil wizard who could be turned into a highly-kickable cat and a zillion cool puzzles that had to be solved via a random found objects and you had an amazing game.
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Marathon 2: Durandal
One of the Mac's gaming high water marks for the 90s and the game that would drive you insane, Marathon 2: Durandal showed what a killer plot, cutting edge 3D graphics, a decent AI that would provide assorted computer units to fight alongside you. Add in a computer intelligence that absolutely, positively hated you which had to be both cooperated and fought against and you had a masterpiece of a game.
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Glider Pro
Sometimes it's the simple games that prove the most memorable. In Glider Pro, you played a paper airplane seeking to escape from a house. With no means of propulsion of your own, you traveled from air vent to air vent and candle to candle, activating switches, avoiding traps and generally just trying to get to the next room in one piece. It wasn't a bad way to kill time on an old Macintosh LC II and it's not a bad way to kill time now...
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Stunt Copter
It didn't get much simpler than this. In Stuntcopter, you controlled a helicopter tasked with dropping a stuntman onto a cart of hay pulled by a horse and a driver. Drop the stuntman too early and you'd either kill the cart's horse or driver. Drop him too late and you'd miss the cart entirely, flattening your stuntman and losing a life. Factor in wind currents, altitudes and distances and you had one of the most addictive shareware games of all time...

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MrFuzion

August 22, 2011 at 11:08pm

I was definitely a fan of all of the Carmen Sandiego programs: Where in the USA, Where in the World, Where in Time, etc.. Believe it or not, I still remember a great deal of info about that one.

Besides The Oregon Trail, there was another great program for the Mac (and, actually, the Apple II and IIe) that required the user to choose a fish and figure out whether they should chase a fish, eat a fish or run away. I believe it was called Odell Lake. That one didn't teach much either, but it was fun to see if you'd get eaten.

Jargogle

August 20, 2011 at 2:03pm

I'm shocked Crystal Quest was not on the list. Talk about an addictive (and annoying) game!

Paul Curthoys

August 18, 2011 at 3:32pm

Spectre was the first Mac game i loved...

macs4evr

August 18, 2011 at 12:01am

I loved that Oregon Trail! I still dig out the Apple II every once in a while to play it haha. Although, I found virtualapple.com. They have a simulator-thingy so you can still play the original Oregon Trail and more Apple II games. :)

RobK

August 17, 2011 at 10:45pm

You can still play MythII: Soulblighter (the best one). You just need to have your original disc.

http : // projectmagma . net /

hypersapien

August 17, 2011 at 6:35pm

Wow! when I read that headline, the first thing that came to my mind was Stunt Copter, and I was surprised to see it actually made the list =) Thanks!

rfinger22

August 17, 2011 at 3:50pm

Totally agree with Bolo. I was hoping that would have made your list, and I was thrilled to see it did. I remember playing that game with all my friends in the computer lab in high school. Those were the days…

I TOTALLY forgot about Stuntman Simple, but fun.

mr100percent

August 17, 2011 at 2:49pm

All, awesome, but what about Sim City 2000?

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